Taking a Knee: A Peaceful Protest

Since the Super Bowl was yesterday, I thought it would be the perfect time talk about this interesting topic. It’s such a giant point of controversy that the country is pretty much divided on. So, let’s dive right in.

The National anthem protests began around the summer of 2016. Before Colin Kaepernick (the football player that initially started the movement along with Eric Reid) started kneeling, he was sitting. He eventually started kneeling because he believed that it showed more respect to those in the military than sitting.

The reason behind the movement was to bring more attention and awareness to police brutality and racism. On August 26th, 2016, after a game, Kaepernick stated, “I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color. To me, this is bigger than football and it would be selfish on my part to look the other way. There are bodies in the street and people getting paid leave and getting away with murder.” When you use one ounce of your brain to think about what he said, you should realize that what he’s saying isn’t wrong…

For years, countless black men and women have died because the police don’t care enough to ask questions first and shoot never. Instead of calmly trying to solve a problem or if it gets to radical, use a taser, they decide to just shoot instead.

Anyways, Kaepernick decided to start kneeling after talking to Nate Boyer, who is an army veteran. He said that it would be more respectful to kneel than to sit because “people kneel to pray” and “we’ll kneel in front of a fallen brother’s grave.” The majority of people that are telling Kaepernick that he is being disrespectful to the troops haven’t even served themselves. There are countless veterans who say that they fought for us so that we could have the freedom to use our rights and that’s exactly what Kaepernick is doing! Look at that! Boiling hot tea!

Many people like to say that Kaepernick kneeling for the national anthem is disrespectful, but it’s his only form of protest that will get attention. He is literally doing a peaceful protest and there are still people that say that sports is not the place for it or that there are other ways to protest. But what other ways can you think of? If we go marching in the streets, we are deemed radical and the police are sent after us. This way, we cause no problems and we are getting our point across.

Kaepernick has since then lost his job because no one is willing to pick him for their team. However, he made a deal with Nike and now has a campaign with them. Kaepernick has made such a big impact that other athletes from other sports have started participating in the movement. And now, he inspires people to fight for something no matter the sacrifice.